Rafe Tells Harper and Oliver He’s Ready for the Bulldozers

Joe Oliver, Harper’s Resources minister, is a dangerous man. Indeed so is Harper. They have flung down the gauntlet, essentially saying that violence is the inevitable consequence of BC not taking the Enbridge Pipeline, the consequent tanker traffic, increased capacity and tankers for the Kinder Morgan line – with only a grumble or two from bitching NDP types.

What should really get our juices jumping is the statement that environmental hearings should proceed speedily and obstacles removed from these projects. it obviously being unthinkable that they could stop them.

That is ill-disguised code for, “Listen you assholes, we don’t give a damn about the public process – just get it over with so we can get on with the construction. It doesn’t matter that this monstrous Tar Sands gunk is to be transported through your pristine forests, mountain and streams – get on with it.”

“Pay no attention, peasants, to the fact that Enbridge has had over 800 spills since 1998 and that experience shows that the mess can never be cleaned up.”

“Disregard your stupid bloody salmon – if Newfoundland can get by without cod, you can get by without salmon and, come to think of it, if you have adult seals, there must be pups somewhere to bludgeon and we’ll find a subsidy for you.”

“There’s lots of money there for First Nations so stop bringing them into the discussion – as soon as we find out what their price is we’ll pay it and get on with it…why we in the federal government have been dealing with these savages, er First Nations, since 1867 and they trust us.”

“And who gives a damn that the people in BC are against these projects – we run things here!”

I oppose violence with every remaining sinew in my body but I’m saying to Harper and Oliver that violence is what their policies will bring. I haven’t had a fight since about Grade VII and I lost that one but I can tell you that I’m prepared to stand in the way of that first shovel and take the consequences. And I say to you both that you’re making a mistake if you think you can do these things without very serious consequences.

There is no middle way, Prime Minister – this Tar Sands gunk has to go by train or truck through Alberta to Houston because it isn’t coming though BC or through her waters.

Do you understand what this issue means to us, Prime Minister?

Look what happened in Alberta with the National Energy Plan! There were no environmental hazards involved, just money. The country was shaken to its roots by this policy and the Tories could only get into government and stay there by promising to tube the program.

That policy was politically inconsequential compared to the pipelines and tankers.

Think on this Mr. Harper: the roar from BC has not come about from the lack of money accompanying the pipelines – because it’s not about the money – yet you tell us a bunch of barnyard droppings about the billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Even if that crap was true we’ll not be bought off.

You talk as if First Nations will no doubt succumb to a billion dollar bribe and act as if this is just a money game and that you simply haven’t reached high enough for them.

What if you’re wrong, Mr. Harper – even you must consider the possibility of error. What then? Do you expect the First Nations to do nothing?

I believe you are dead wrong about our First Nations and you’re a damned fool if you simply go into your Ottawa shell and pull the covers over your head.

Prime Minister, you seem to be oblivious of the damage you’re doing.

The province of BC knows that these hearings are phoney but in a curious way they help us because they give people a place to vent their feelings and come together for the fight.

We know that you couldn’t care less that Enbridge has had 811 “accidents” since 1998. But take a moment, Mr. Harper, to check out the July 2010 Enbridge spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River; compare that geography with ours and you’ll see that there is no way Enbridge could do anything about a spill in British Columbia, even if they could get anything to it. It’s a problem of nature that not even you and Mr. Oliver can do anything about. Bitumen, because of its viscous nature, is like black ooze – you can’t get rid of it.

MOSTLY WE KNOW WE KNOW THAT ON LAND AND AT SEA, ACCIDENTS ARE NOT RISKS BUT CERTAINTIES.

You must know these things too, Prime Minister, so why are you doing this to us?

About Rafe Mair

Rafe Mair, LL.B, LL.D (Hon) a B.C. MLA 1975 to 1981, was Minister
of Environment from late 1978 through 1979. In 1981 he left politics for
Talk Radio becoming recognized as one of B.C.'s pre-eminent journalists.
An avid fly fisherman, he took a special interest in Atlantic salmon farms
and private power projects as environmental calamities and became a
powerful voice in opposition to them. Rafe is the co-founder of The Common Sense Canadian and writes a regular blog at rafeonline.com.
View all posts by Rafe Mair →

34 thoughts on “Rafe Tells Harper and Oliver He’s Ready for the Bulldozers”

Breaking news flash! The Prime Minister of Canada was poached on Native Lands! While he did fear impeachment for crimes against the country he never suspected empoachment at the hands of the people he robbed. A hunter who was poaching on lands claimed by the Canadian government had this to say: ‘Yer honor, I honestly mistook him for a weasel. When we realized he wasn’t good to eat we stuck a Chinese flag up his ass and pushed him off in the general direction of China. We was drinkin Canadian beer at the time.’ Canadians coast to coast quit work to celebrate. Visit the Resistance: http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/

theres alot of pepole who say not in my backyard but in the front yard driveway sit our cars. can we refine this ourselfs and use it? instead of shipping it off and getting it back as gas, plastics, rubber, ect. theres alot of money put towards this pipeline, why dont we [or the oil company] invest in ourselfs [canada] instead of sending off raw materals [lumber]. i think other countries take advantage of us. we are in a good place with are economy, so lets suck’em dry. p.s. im no oil engenere or speller.

This whole thing reminds me of George Bushes push for the Iraq War. Ignoring the protests, making enemies of innocent people, and willing to destroy everything in its way to get what it wanted including democracy. The big difference between this and the Iraq war is that instead of attacking innocent foreigners they are attacking its own people. Oil is a curse on every country that has it.

It is not your or I who are “Enemies of Canada” as Oily Joe Oliver stated yesterday. It is the Harper government which is giving away our rights, resources and all the work and privileges which once made Canada the greatest place to live. They do this because they got out 39% of the active vote, or 25% of the eligible vote.
They are a criminal regime and they are the Enemies of Canada.

Recently I asked a question in Facebook using their question surveys. I polled the people on my Facebook list with the following question.
“Would you be willing to go to jail to defend our rivers from oil pipelines?”
The results were quite surprising, or were they?
Out of 47 replies.
42 said “Yes” They would be willing to go to jail be willing to go to jail to defend our rivers from oil pipelines, let alone stop bull dozers.
3 said ”Mabye” They be willing to go to jail to defend our rivers from oil pipelines
2 said “No” and one of those two is from Kuwait

Will we join you Raif? Hell you’re going to have to pick a number in the lineup rushing out there, but we do love that you will join us.

More on Tom Flanagan’s advice re the adversarial First Nations:
Flanagan identified five “threat groups,” which include First Nations, Metis, mainstream environmentalists, ecoterrorists and individual saboteurs. In his executive summary to the report, Resource Industries and Security Issues in Northern Alberta Flanagan states,

“All except the Métis have at various times used some combination of litigation, blockades, occupations, boycotts, sabotage, and violence against economic development projects which they saw as a threat to environmental values or aboriginal rights. Such incidents will probably continue in the future, as they have in the past. However, extra-legal obstruction is unlikely to become large-scale and widespread unless these various groups make common cause and cooperate with each other. Such cooperation has not happened in the past and seems unlikely in the future because the groups have different social characteristics and conflicting political interests … A nightmare scenario “would be a linkage between warrior societies and eco-terrorists.”

PMH today
“However, at the same time, we will make it a national priority to ensure we have the capacity to export our energy products beyond the United States, and specifically to Asia.
In this regard, we will soon take action to ensure that major energy and mining projects are not subject to unnecessary regulatory delays – that is, delay merely for the sake of delay.”
Such as little things like environmental hearings?

Rafe,
These clowns have seriously misjudged the backlash coming their way.
At some point guns are going to come into this protest.
Once the Fixed “polls” and show hearings are over , Harper will tell us that British Columbians now support the project.
Then the shooting will be begin.
I’ve never seen and felt so much opposition to an issue in BC, the people i talk to at work, online, and in the streets of Vancouver are unanimously against taking this suicidal risk so Harper’s scumbag oil buddies can make piles of loot fueling Communist China’s Rise.
He will call us terrorists and might attempt to bring foreign troops into BC to snuff the uprising.
He paved the way legally by signing a treasonous agreement a couple years ago.
Fuck a sign and singing kumbaya from a free speech zone.
This is the future of our province at stake and many of us are ready to go to war.
Nobody living in BC wants this fucking pipeline outside of our bribed Premiere and her new Enbridge Chief of Staff.
Harper has gone rogue and appears to be working for China/Israel.
Harper wants Bible War with Iran and the death of my coast for generations.
He is by far the greatest danger facing Canadians right now.

Tom Flanagan, the PM’s former chief of staff, suggests that Harper overcome First Nation’s opposition by invoking its constitutional power to: declare the project to be a work for the national interest; and, extinguish aboriginal title and impose a settlement! Unbelievable! See full article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2012/01/post-6.html

Harper is no Conservative. he is a Reformer. His party is the Northern Foundation Party. They said, the skinheads assisted Harper to organize his very shady dictatorship party. This was in 1989. Very recently Deb Grey said, Harper is still a Reformer. I hate to say it, but, Canada is now a fascist dictatorship country.

Kinder Morgan now has a leak. Enbridge has another leak, going into the Gulf. Enbridge had a, 1,500 barrel pipeline burst in Wrigley N.W.T. This was at the time, of the Slave Lake fire. Recently there has been seven ships run aground and breaking up. There has been another rig explosion. There have been tanker spills.

The seas around Port Kitimat, are one of the most treacherous in the world. Every other day, there are warnings of, hurricane force winds, 40 to 50 feet high waves. The channel narrow, the tankers massive. The huge tankers have to make hairpin turns. On a good day, the channel is difficult to navigate. In one of the many storms, forget it.

I just picked up these links in another place for reading; this quote is from the 4th link down:

“If the pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. is content to cower behind a 20-something blog manager(Lavant) rather than acknowledge its role in the recent attack on the patriotism of Canadian environmentalists, what hope have we that the company would ever stand accountable for the accidents that will occur – inevitably – if Northern Gateway ever gets built?”

You nailed it Raif….
there has been Billion$ in Chinese money pumped into the pockets of the tycoons in Alberta already, but it isn’t enough, it will never be enough. They don’t have to live in the dead land they have created, and they are quite willing to sacrifice these lands and waters to get more. The feds dearly want in on that too, think of how many war machines and tear gas canisters those billions would buy. Enbridge is already using a swack of foreign money to help us make up our minds. Shoulder to shoulder pard.

My home is Terrace BC. THe Skeena runs through town from it’s headwaters deep in the heart of Northern BC.
In the summer we would go to the Moricetown Bridge by Moricetown Apologies, (I can’t remember whose territory it is) and watch 100’s of Salmon gather to run through the canyon. I’ve hiked tiny little streams in the back country to discover spawners in pools laying down the next generation.

We just had a week of huge snowfalls, bitterly cold temperatures and high winds. THe avy risk is huge.

When I think of a rupture in a pipe somewhere remote in this weather, I know it cannot be addressed.

The day the mighty Skeena runs oily and smelly will break the North. Harper must be stopped. I feel he is Canada’s greatest danger at this time. I’m very afraid of what he gave away in China; our rights, our freedom, our country?

this radical republican Harper government are just in the early stages of gutting evey environmental law in the country and they will try and shut down every environmetal group that opposses them we must fight back and stop the Clark/Harper governments from destroying this country!

I can not believe what i read in some of these comments.The oil industry is the backbone of this country. It will do nothing but create wealth for many people.It does however need to be accountable and fair in doing so . And as for Don F name me anyone who is stopping you from freedom of religion, beliefs,language ,culture or anything else.Take
responsibility for your self and quit the poor me crap.

O.K. Rafe you heard my rant, If Enbridge is allowed, people will dye. You and i both know this,and i will be right there bearing arms. After oka the Government will not allow this action again. However this action needs to happen, people will die. Rafe support this and do your best to prevent any action.

Wow Rafe, are politics going to change or what?? We need a non confidence vote in B.C. and at the Federal level, Harper, Oliver, and Clarke need to go. We need an Indian seat in Government to ensure that our voice is heard. We need this in every Province and at a national level as well. I as an Indian have never had the gratification of being an Indian. I am the minority in this entire world. I have survived the greatest genocide the modern world has ever known. Raped of my culture,beliefs,language,religious freedom,and stature.People say forget about it,because it was a hundred years ago. No this started 270 years ago and today “I am pissed off” i will not forget!!!!!!! I am an Indian, I live on Indian land, I will not give up my right of land to Canada or the Crown. The Supreme Court Of Canada ruled in 1950 that the Government of Canada should, desist in the collection of INCOME TAX, and gave them 12 years to do so. I am an Indian, this is Indian land. I do not choose to pay white tax to a white Government that tried to kill all Indians in North America. I am an Indian under the Indian Act, and therefore should not be subjected to any tax in North America!!!!!

I defy anyone, Harper, Oliver, Enbridge, Politition or common man to explain how this is good for B.C. at any level. How this in fact is good for Canada at any level?
It simply isn’t and in fact just the opposite is true that it is bad for B.C. and Canada at every level.
You have to give your head a shake at the gross deciet and lies thes people will put forward to us and think we are that stupid that we will conform to thier absurd practices!
If this pipeline becomes a reality we as Canadians can expect higher oil prices,environmental devastation, offshore control of our resources along with job losses.
We can expect no return for all the subsidy money we have given the petroleum industry and we will still be held in bondage by foreign oil for Canadians.
I ask how is this and exactly where are the benifits???
Don

Listen you assholes in Ottawa! Obviously you haven’t dealt with a bunch of pissed off British Columbians before. Here’s some news for ya. When you come to build your frickin pipeline, first you’ll have to get through a solid line of First Nations. If you succeed then you’ll be facing a solid line of really upset grannies and grandpas and if you want your asses kicked, so be it! Don’t underestimate us Harper. You will not be bringing that thing through BC.
Oh – final thing – unlike Rafe, when I used to fight, I won. I might be a lot older now, but I’m even more determined. Bring it on…..

Many thousands of men and women have given their lives for the “country’ in wars thru the past 200 years.. would i fight for my ‘country’ in the bullshite false flag missions of late? not on your life! i would actively discourage anyone from joining our Forces while the prize is control of oil for the few..
i feel this is far more important then any other real estate on the planet..
Bring on the ‘dozers..